Digital radio telephone for a digital mobile radio communication system

ABSTRACT

A digital radio telephone comprises a radio portion for receiving a radio signal modulated by an encoded digital signal including control information, for demodulating and outputting the encoded digital signal, a control signal processing portion for decoding the demodulated encoded digital signal to obtain the control information, a telephone number information detecting means for detecting whether the decoded control information includes mate telephone number information, a memory for storing the telephone number information, a time information management means for specifying an incoming time of the telephone number information to output a time information, and a memory management means for recording the telephone number information corresponding to the time information into the memory.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a division of application Ser. No. 08/728,359, filedOct. 9, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,984.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a digital radio telephone used in a digitalmobile radio communication system such as a land mobile/portable phonesystem and a PHS (Personal Handyphone System) adopting a digitaltelephone system for example. The invention particularly relates to adigital radio telephone having a function of storing a mate telephonenumber (hereinafter, referred to as “incoming telephone number”) and afunction of calling the stored phone number (hereinafter, referred to as“incoming redialing function”).

2. Description of the Prior Art

FIG. 11 shows a system configuration of an analog radio telephone havinga conventional incoming redialing function disclosed in a laid-openJapanese patent publication No. 5-14274. This type of conventionaltelephone receives mate telephone number information of an incoming calltogether with an analog audio signal via a radio channel using acommunication channel in a form of a DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency)signal where a plurality of frequency signals are superposed, and then,stores the telephone number information in a memory.

An operation of the incoming redialing function of the analog radiotelephone is explained below. First, a radio signal containing controlinformation received via an antenna 6 using a control channel isdemodulated by a radio portion 5 and outputted as a control signal whichis an analog signal in a base band. Control information in thedemodulated control signal is decoded by a decoder 15 and is processedby a microcomputer 10 to establish the radio communication channel.Then, a radio signal containing the telephone number informationreceived via the antenna 6 using the communication channel isdemodulated by the radio portion 5 and outputted as the DTMF signalwhich is the analog signal in 9 base band. The telephone numberinformation in the demodulated DTMF signal is detected, judged, anddecoded by a DTMF receiver 16. Then, the output receiver 16 from theDTMF signal is processed by the microcomputer 10 and stored in a memory12. On the other hand, in case of calling by redialing, the telephonenumber information stored in advance in the memory 12 by themicrocomputer 10 is read out, encoded by an encoder 17, modulated by theradio portion 5, then, transmitted from the antenna 6 as a radio signal.

Since the incoming redialing function in the conventional analog radiotelephone constructed as explained above requires the DTMF receiver fordetecting the telephone number information in addition to theconstruction for operating the telephone function itself, there is aproblem that the conventional analog radio telephone construction iscomplicated. Also, since the conventional analog radio telephone redialsusing the telephone number information stored only in the memory, it isdifficult to provide an incoming redialing function havinghigh-performance or multifunction in consideration of user service.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a digital radiotelephone having a high-performance incoming redialing function bymaximally using the digital processing ability naturally included in adigital radio telephone.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the invention, a digital radio telephonecomprises a radio portion for receiving a radio signal modulated by anencoded digital signal including control information, for demodulatingand outputting the encoded digital signal; a control signal processingportion for decoding the demodulated encoded digital signal to obtainthe control information; a telephone number information detecting meansfor detecting whether the decoded control information includes matetelephone number information; a memory for storing the telephone numberinformation; a time information management means for specifying anincoming time of the telephone number information to output a timeinformation; and a memory management means for recording the telephonenumber information corresponding to the time information into thememory.

According to another aspect of the invention, a digital radio telephoneused for an external line and an extension line further comprises anextension/external line judging means for judging whether the telephonenumber information is from the extension or from the external line; anexternal line information addition means for adding an external linecalling information to the telephone number information according to ajudging result to output as new telephone number information.

Preferably, the memory management means in the digital radio telephonerecords a predetermined number of telephone number information in thememory starting with telephone number information received mostrecently.

According to further aspect of the invention, a digital radio telephonefurther comprises an operating portion for supplying an operatingsignal, and a display portion for displaying various information duringoperation, wherein, the memory comprises a first memory portion forstoring the telephone number information included in the controlinformation and a second memory portion for registering other telephonenumbers information inputted from the operating portion correspondingidentification information to the telephone numbers; and the operatingportion instructs the display portion to display the telephone numberinformation recorded in the first memory portion together with thecorresponding identification information recorded in the second memoryportion.

According to further aspect of the invention, a digital radio telephonefurther comprises an operating portion for supplying an operatingsignal, a display portion for displaying various information duringoperation, wherein, the memory comprises a first memory portion forstoring the telephone number information included in the controlinformation and a second memory portion for registering other telephonenumbers information inputted from the operating portion correspondingidentification information to the telephone numbers; and the operatingportion instructs the display portion to display the telephone numberinformation recorded in the first memory portion together with thecorresponding identification information recorded in the second memoryportion.

According to further aspect of the invention, a digital radio telephonefurther comprises an operating portion for supplying an operatingsignal, a display portion for displaying various information duringoperation, wherein, the operating portion instructs the display portionto display the telephone number information one after another in acirculative way starting with telephone number information received mostrecently.

Preferably, the operating portion in the digital radio telephoneinstructs to make a calling process according to the telephone numberinformation when predetermined telephone number information recorded inthe memory is displayed on the display portion.

Preferably, the memory in the digital radio telephone comprises a firstmemory portion for storing the telephone number information included inthe control information and a second memory portion for registeringother telephone numbers information inputted from the operating portioncorresponding identification information to the telephone numbers; andthe operating portion instructs the second memory portion to registerthe predetermined telephone number information when the predeterminedtelephone number information recorded in the first memory portion isdisplayed on the display portion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a system configuration of adigital radio telephone of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram related to a recording process ofan incoming telephone number of the embodiment of the present inventionshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram related to a detailed process of a memorymanagement means of the embodiment of the present invention shown inFIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart related to the recording process of the incomingtelephone number of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram to explain a storage configuration of the incomingtelephone numbers of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart related to a display process of the incomingtelephone number of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a displaying order of the incoming telephone numbers in thepresent invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart related to an incoming redialing process of theincoming telephone number of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart related to a memory dial registering process ofthe incoming telephone number of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram to explain a storage construction of the telephonenumbers in the memory dial registering memory of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of aconventional digital radio telephone.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1.

The present invention is concretely explained focusing on a digitalradio telephone compatible to both a private (extension) line and apublic (external) line. FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of thedigital radio telephone of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.1 comprises a microphone 1 which is used by a user of the digital radiotelephone to input audio information such as speech as an analog audiosignal, an A/D) converter 2 for converting the inputted analog audiosignal into a digital audio signal, a voice encoding/decoding portion 3for encoding the digital audio signal outputted from the A/D converter 2using a data compression encoding system such as a VSELP (Vector SumExcited Linear Predictive Coding) system to obtain an encoded digitalsignal, and decoding the encoded digital signal in a reverse process tothe encoding to obtain a digital audio signal, a switch 4 for selectingany one of the encoded digital signal from the voice encoding/decodingportion 3 or an encoded digital signal from a control signal processingportion 9 mentioned later, a radio portion 5 having a transmissionmodulating function for converting the encoded digital signal from theswitch 4 into a radio signal transmitted by an antenna 6 and a receptiondemodulating function for converting the radio signal received by theantenna 6 into an encoded digital signal, a D/A converter 7 forconverting the digital audio signal decoded by the voiceencoding/decoding portion 3 into an analog audio signal, a speaker 8 foroutputting the audio information as the analog audio signal, a controlsignal processing portion 9 for decoding a control information includedin the encoded digital signal from the radio portion 5, and for encodingtelephone number information stored in a memory 12 mentioned later, andoutputting the telephone number information to the switch 4 as anencoded digital signal, a microcomputer 10 for recording the telephonenumber information included in the control information from the controlsignal processing portion 9 in the memory 12 according to the time whenthe information is received and for processing the telephone numberinformation stored in the memory 12 in order to display it on thedisplay portion 13 mentioned later by an operating portion 11, anoperating portion 11 for reading the telephone number information out ofthe memory 12 for example and for inputting an operating informationsuch as carrying out calling as an operating signal, a memory 12 forstoring the telephone number information processed by the microcomputer10 as an incoming record information, a display portion 13 fordisplaying a message in response to the operating information andvarious operations, and a control timing generating circuit 14 forcontrolling switching timing of the switch 4. FIG. 1 also comprises avoice processing portion 100 which comprises the A/D converter 2, thevoice encoding/decoding portion 3, and the D/A converter 7.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram especially relates to a recordingprocess of the incoming telephone number conducted in the microcomputer10 in the system configuration of the digital radio telephone shown inFIG. 1. FIG. 2 comprises a telephone number information detecting means40 for detecting whether the telephone number information is included inthe control information from the control signal processing portion 9, atime information management means 50 for specifying a receiving time ofthe control information included the telephone number informationaccording to the time from a clock portion (not shown) provided in thedigital radio telephone and for outputting the time information, anextension/external line judging means 70 for identifying and judgingwhether the call is from the extension or from the external line in casethe telephone number information exists by detecting extension/externalline identification information included in the control information forexample, an external line information addition means 80 for extractingthe telephone number information from the control information and foroutputting the telephone number information in case the call is from theextension line, while for extracting the telephone number informationfrom the control information, and adding external line callinginformation to the telephone number information, then, outputting thetelephone number information as new telephone number information in casethe call is from the external line, and a memory management means 60 forrecording the telephone number information from the external lineinformation addition means in the memory 12 as incoming recordinformation in correspondence to the time information from the timeinformation management means 50.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram especially relates to a detailedprocess conducted in the memory management means 60 shown in FIG. 1which is the functional block diagram regarding the incoming telephonenumber process conducted in the microcomputer 10. In FIG. 3, a telephonenumber information comparison means 67 compares the telephone numberinformation from the external line information addition means 80 withthe telephone numbers previously recorded in the memory 12 anddetermines whether these telephone numbers are identical to each other.The operating portion 11 gives instructions to compare or not with thetelephone number information. A vacant memory judging means 61 judgeswhether a vacant area exists in the memory 12 to store the telephonenumber information of a new incoming call according to an output of thetelephone number information comparison means 67 (“record all” withoutcomparison or “no identical information” as a result of comparison). Arerecording means 62 deletes unnecessary information (the oldestinformation or a plurality of identical information) of the incomingrecord information recorded in the memory 12 according to a judgingresult of the vacant memory judging means 61 (“no vacancy”) or theoutput of the telephone number information comparison means 67(“identical information” as a result of comparison) and keeps vacantareas to newly rerecord the remaining incoming record information Arecording means 63 records the telephone number information in a desiredarea in the memory 12 in correspondence to time information as anincoming record information according to “vacant” as a judging result ofthe vacant memory judging means 61 or “vacant” as a judging result ofthe re-recording means 62.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an operation of the recording process ofthe incoming telephone number. The operation of the present embodimentshown in FIG. 2 is explained using FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, in a step 401, the telephone number information detecting means40 detects whether the telephone number information is included in thecontrol information from the control signal processing portion 9. Theprocess is completed in case the telephone number information is notincluded In case telephone number information is included, theextension/external line judging means 70 identifies and judges whetherthe telephone is in the extension or in the external line in a next step402. In case the call is in the external line, in a next step 403, theexternal line information addition means 80 adds external lineidentifying information (“0” as the external line calling number, forexample) to the telephone number information in the control information.In case the call is in the extension, the external line informationaddition means 80 extracts the telephone number information from thecontrol information and outputs the telephone number information. Then,in a step 404, the time information management means 50 specifies thetime when the telephone number information is received. In a next step405, the operating portion 11 instructs the telephone number informationcomparison means 67 how to process incoming telephone numbers received.In the case where all incoming telephone numbers are to be recorded, theoperation goes to step 406. In the case of where only the latestreceived incoming telephone number previously recorded is to bemaintained in memory, the operation goes to a step 410. In the step 410,the telephone number information comparison means 67 compares therecorded incoming telephone number information recorded in an incomingrecording memory portion 121 of memory 12 with the latest incomingtelephone number information. In the case where the incoming telephonenumber does not correspond to the registered telephone numberinformation, the operation goes to the step 406. On the other hand, inthe case where the incoming telephone number is identical to a telephonenumber already recorded in the registered telephone number information,the operation goes to step 411. In the step 411, the recording means 63deletes the old telephone number information from the incoming recordingmemory 121 which matches the latest incoming telephone number, and goesto step 408. In the step 406, the vacant memory judging means 61 judgeswhether there is an area for new incoming telephone number informationto be recorded in the incoming recording memory 121. In the case wherethe incoming recording memory 121 has a vacant storage area, theincoming telephone number information is recorded in the incomingrecording memory 121 together with the time information. In the casewhere the incoming recording memory 121 is fully occupied, the operationgoes to a next step 407, where the telephone number information with theoldest time information is deleted from the incoming recording memory121. In the next step 408, the second oldest telephone numberinformation is incremented and recorded into the location in theincoming recording memory 121 where the oldest time information isdeleted. This operation is repeated continuously. In a next step 409,the latest incoming telephone number information is finally recordedtogether with the time information into a location in the vacantincoming recording memory 121, and the operation is then completed. FIG.5 shows a memory construction of the incoming telephone numbers andtheir incoming times in the incoming recording memory 121. As shown inFIG. 5, the respective incoming telephone number is stored in eachaddress in combination with its incoming time in the incoming recordingmemory 121.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing an operation of display processes of theincoming telephone number recorded in the incoming recording memory 121.The operation of the display processes is explained below using FIGS. 3and 6. First, in a step 601, the operating portion 11 instructs todisplay the recorded incoming telephone numbers. In a next step 602, amemory record judging means 66 judges whether incoming telephone numberinformation is recorded so far into the incoming recording memory 121.In case no incoming telephone number information is recorded in a step603, an indicating sound is given from the speaker 8 to inform the userthat no incoming telephone number information is recorded and also anindication is displayed on the display portion 13 that no telephonenumber information is recorded, then, the display process is completed.In case where incoming telephone number information is recorded, anincoming record reading means 64 reads a recorded incoming telephonenumber received most recently together with its incoming time out of theincoming recording memory 121, and in a step 604, the display portion 13displays the telephone number and the incoming time. In a next step 605,the display process finishes according to an instruction of theoperating portion 11. In case of displaying other incoming telephonenumbers, in a next step 606, the operating portion 11 instructs toswitch the display indication of the incoming telephone number. Inresponse to the instruction from the operation portion 11, in a step607, the display of an immediately preceding incoming telephone numberor an immediately succeeding incoming telephone number is switched backand forth. After that, the operation returns to the step 605, then, thesteps 605, 606, 607 are repeated until a desired incoming telephonenumber is displayed.

FIG. 7 shows a displaying order of the incoming telephone numbers whenfive incoming telephone numbers are recorded. According to theinstructions from the operating portion 11, the displayed telephonenumber circulates in an increment direction or a decrement direction ofthe recorded incoming telephone numbers one after another. In the abovementioned display processes (steps 604, 607), only the incomingtelephone number information and the incoming time recorded in theincoming recording memory 121 are displayed. In case memory dialinformation corresponding to the incoming telephone number informationis registered in a registering memory 122 which is mentioned later,additional information (e.g. name or company name corresponding to thetelephone number) in the memory dial information can be displayed as arelated information at the same time in addition to the incomingtelephone number information. In this case, in steps 604 and 607, thememory dial information in the registering memory 122 is searched(searching means is not shown) using a key word of the incomingtelephone number which is read out by the incoming record reading means64. Then, if the identical telephone number with the incoming telephonenumber is searched in the incoming record reading means 64, theadditional information corresponding to the incoming telephone number isread out from the memory dial reading means 68 and displayed on thedisplay portion 13.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing an operation of an incoming redialingprocess using the incoming telephone number recorded in the incomingrecording memory 121. The operation of the incoming redialing process isexplained below using FIGS. 3 and 8. First, in a step 801, the operatingportion 11 instructs the display portion 13 to display a desiredincoming telephone number. The detailed processes from the start to thedisplay indication for displaying the incoming telephone number is thesame as the display processes explained using FIG. 6. Next, in a step802, the operating portion 11 instructs to carry out the incomingredialing. Then, in a next step 803, the telephone number informationread out by the incoming record reading means 64 is transmitted ascontrol information from the radio portion 5 to the mate telephone viathe control signal processing portion 9 to make a telephone call.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing an operation of a memory dial registeringprocess of the incoming telephone number recorded in the incomingrecording memory 121. In general, a memory dial function includesfunctions for registering frequently-used telephone numbers and theirrelated additional information (names, names of companies correspondingto the telephone numbers) in advance as memory dial information, foraccessing a desired telephone number or additional information, fordisplaying it and for making a telephone call with less operations. Theregistering is explained using FIG. 3. First, a mate telephone number isinputted from the operating portion 11. Then, a registering means 65registers the telephone number into a desired area in the registeringmemory 122 which is a second memory portion in the memory 12. At thistime, it is possible to register the telephone number corresponding toan abbreviated title of the mate name and so on if required. FIG. 10shows a storage construction of the mate telephone numbers and therelated abbreviation of the mate names. As shown in FIG. 10, thetelephone numbers are combined with the corresponding abbreviations andregistered in respective addresses in the registering memory 122. Anoperation of the memory dial registering process of the presentinvention is explained below using FIGS. 3 and 9. First, in a step 901,a desired incoming telephone number is displayed on the display portion13 according to the instructions of the operating portion 11. Thedetailed processes from the start to the display indication fordisplaying the incoming telephone number is the same as the displayprocesses explained using FIG. 6. Then, in a step 902, the operatingportion 11 instructs to register the memory dial. In a next step 903,the telephone number information read out by the incoming record readingmeans 64 is registered in a desired area in the registering memory 122,or the second memory portion, via the registering means 65.

What is claimed is:
 1. A digital radio telephone comprising: a radioportion for receiving a radio signal modulated by an encoded digitalsignal including control information, for demodulating and outputtingsaid encoded digital signal; a control signal processing portion fordecoding said demodulated encoded digital signal to obtain said controlinformation; a telephone number information detecting means fordetecting, before a speech path is established with an incoming callapparatus, whether the decoded control information includes incomingtelephone number information; a memory for storing said telephone numberinformation, said memory having an incoming recording memory and aregistering memory, with said incoming recording memory storing atelephone number and a time information of an incoming telephone call; atime information management means responsive to said telephone numberinformation detecting means for specifying an incoming time of saidtelephone number information to output said time information; and amemory management means for recording said telephone number informationcorresponding to said time information into said memory, with saidtelephone number being compared to previously stored telephone numbers,and being stored in a first memory location if said telephone number isnot in said incoming recording memory, and being deleted from anexisting memory location and being stored in a first memory location ifsaid telephone number is currently in said incoming recording memory. 2.The digital radio telephone of claim 1, further comprising: anidentification information memory for storing identification informationcorresponding to said telephone number information stored in the memory.